Bears coach Ben Johnson trolled the media on Sunday, starting both Case Keenum and Tyson Bagent. Keenum took the first snap, with Bagent lined up at wide receiver.
It was the only snap for Keenum. Bagent played all 93.
An NFL spokesman said the Elias Sports Bureau clarified to the league that Keenum will be credited with the start and the victory since he is the quarterback who took the first snap.
“Good for him,” Johnson said after the 23-12 win when told the win would go on Keenum’s record. “I think the team gets credited for a win.”
If two quarterbacks are on the field for the first play, the one who takes the snap is considered the starter. If a running back were to take the first snap in the wildcat, with the quarterback lined up out wide, the quarterback — as the only quarterback on the field — would still get the start and the win.
Keenum is 32-36 in his career, including 2-0 as the Bears’ starter this season. Bagent is 2-2.
Bagent is expected to start Sunday’s game against the Packers.
Bears Clips
The year was 2006. The month was September. It’s the last time the Bears were favored to beat the Packers during a game at Lambeau Field.
Via Ben Fawkes of Yahoo Sports, the Bears entered the Week 1 2006 game as a 3.5-point favorite over the Packers. Green Bay has been favored in every home game against Chicago since then.
The Bears won the 2006 game, 26-0. The scoring was capped by an 89-yard punt return from Hall of Famer Devin Hester. Other Canton-bound players in the game included Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, Packers quarterback Brett Favre, and Packers cornerback Charles Woodson.
This time around, the 3-1 Bears are favored by three points against the 2-2 Packers.
The Packers lead the all-time series, 109-98-6.
The Bears have won three of the last four. Before that, the Packers had won 10 in a row, and 15 out of 16 against their archrivals.
The Bears are bringing a veteran receiver back to their practice squad.
Scotty Miller is re-signing with the unit, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Miller was previously with the Bears this year in the offseason program and training camp. After roster cuts, the club re-signed Miller to the practice squad. He was released from it on Sept. 24.
Miller has caught 99 passes for 1,216 yards with six touchdowns in his career. He’s appeared in 93 games for Tampa Bay, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh.
Why one member of Chicago’s dynamic rushing attack suffered an injury on Sunday, it may not keep him sidelined for long — if at all.
Bears head coach Ben Johnson told reporters in his Monday press conference that running back Kyle Monangai’s thumb injury is not serious.
“We think he’s going to be OK,” Johnson said, via transcript from the team. “We’ll see what it looks like as we go through the week here, but more of a day-to-day type deal.”
While D’Andre Swift is Chicago’s starter, Monangai leads the team with 324 yards rushing, averaging 5.4 yards per carry. Swift has 311 yards, averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
The Bears will play the Packers at Lambeau Field on Sunday.
Sunday’s Jets-Bears game has an unexpected postscript.
Via Kalyn Kahler of ESPN, former Bears linebacker Otis Wilson was involved in an altercation with multiple security officers at Soldier Field.
Wilson, a member of the legendary 1985 Bears Super Bowl championship team, reportedly boarded a media elevator. An argument ensued, resulting in conflicting allegations from Wilson and the security personnel.
Wilson claims that he and his wife were “assaulted by private security personnel.” The security company claims that Wilson “forced his way onto the elevator,” became “physically combative and violently attacked” a female officer, and “aggressively threw the female officer into a wall . . . leaving a large hole in the wall.”
Wilson said he was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was treated and released. The security company claims that the female officer was also transported to a hospital with “substantial bruising and injuries to her ribs and arms.”
As Kahler explains it, multiple reporters witnessed the moments before the incident. Wilson and his wife boarded an elevator meant for the media. Wilson and his wife were asked to leave. They refused. Security personnel then tried to physically remove them.
Wilson has asked Soldier Field and the security company to “preserve all surveillance and body camera footage of the incident, to conduct a full and transparent investigation, and to hold the individuals responsible accountable.”
David Haugh of 104.3 The Score in Chicago witnessed the incident, and he discussed it during the Monday edition of his show.
“It was an ugly sight,” Haugh said. “There was a hole in the wall” where the incident occurred.
“There’s got to be a better way to expedite this whole situation,” Haugh said regarding the practice of making an elevator available only to the media, at a time when others are also trying to leave the stadium.
He’s right. And, at a minimum, there’s a point at which someone who technically shouldn’t be on the elevator should be allowed to ride it down without a fight happening. The security officers seemingly were too zealous when it came to getting Wilson and his wife out of the elevator. Wilson, based on the security company’s statement, overreacted, and it cascaded.
We’ve got a feeling that the available visual evidence will show that both sides carry blame for this one. Which could mean that Wilson and one or more security officers could be facing legal consequences, once the situation is fully sorted out.
Moving forward, and as Haugh said, there has to be a better way to ensure that the media can get to the locker room to do their work after a game, without chaos unfolding.
Veteran pass rusher Marcus Davenport didn’t request his release from the Bears’ practice squad so that he could sign with another team’s practice squad.
Via NFL Network, the 30-year-old Davenport will retire.
He was a first-round pick of the Saints in 2018 (14th overall). He spent five years in New Orleans, one in Minnesota, and two in Detroit before joining the Bears.
Davenport has 78 regular-season appearances with 43 starts. He hasn’t played much since leaving the Saints — 19 regular-season games and 11 starts in four seasons. He also has four postseason appearances and one start, all of which came with the Saints.
Davenport has 25.0 career sacks, with a career-high of 9.0 in 2021.
Bears coach Ben Johnson has no qualms about making his disdain for the Packers known. Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur takes a different approach to the situation.
LaFleur explained his decision not to take Ben Johnson’s bait to reporters on Monday.
“Because this game is about players and so we’ll keep it about the players,” LaFleur said, via Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. “I’m not the one out there they’re playing. . . . Don’t get me wrong. I love the rivalry. It’s awesome. It’s great. It’s intense. You can feel it on gameday. You can feel it throughout the course of the week and also the significance, I mean, they’re the defending [NFC] North champions. So what a great opportunity, great challenge for us in our home stadium to play against the defending champs.”
For Johnson’s part, he sent a clear message to his players about Sunday’s game at Lambeau Field.
“He wants to beat them really bad like everyone else in the room, like every Chicago fan. Beat them real bad, and make them quit,” receiver Luther Burden III said, via Cassie Carlson of Fox32.
Johnson’s anti-Green Bay antics have included declaring in the locker room after a playoff win, “Fuck the Packers! Fuck them!”
“The Bears and the Packers, they should not like each other,” Johnson said in a Scouting Combine-week appearance on PFT Live. “I think it’s as simple as that. And I think that’s gonna make this rivalry, this game, something that people are going to watch here going forward.”
For fans, that’s absolutely true. Players and coaches are interchangeable. Coaches can be nomads, hopping from job to job regardless of where the job may be. And they generally refrain from making things personal because today’s enemy could be tomorrow’s employer.
Johnson, to his credit, isn’t willing to play the game. He earned his stripes with the Packers as a rival (Johnson and the Lions spoiled Aaron Rodgers’s last game in Green Bay), and he’s in position to be the coach of the Bears for a long time. He could become as beloved as Mike Ditka, in time.
He’s off to a good start. In part because he says what most Bears fans believe about the Packers.
As to this weekend’s game, which was moved out of the higher-profile 4:25 p.m. ET window for 1:00 p.m. ET, Johnson surely will say, privately and/or publicly, that the flex didn’t happen because of the Bears but because (as Johnson is more likely to say privately but who knows?), “The Packers suck.”
The Bears released veteran defensive end Marcus Davenport from the practice squad at his request, according to multiple reports.
He made his season debut on Sunday and totaled one tackle in 12 snaps in the victory over the Jets.
Davenport, a 2018 first-round pick of the Saints, signed with the Bears in August. It reunited him with his former Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, who is now the Bears defensive coordinator.
Davenport has registered only 24 tackles and 3.5 sacks in 15 games since 2023.
Bears second-year defensive lineman Shemar Turner could be close to returning from reserve/PUP. He is working his way back from a torn ACL that ended his rookie season last October.
Packers defensive end Micah Parsons is eligible to come off of the physically unable to perform list this week, but it will not happen.
Head coach Matt LaFleur said at a Monday press conference that Parsons will not return to practice this week. Parsons said this summer that he thought Week 6 was the “most optimistic” date for him to return from last year’s torn ACL, but a recent report said that his first game action may not come until November.
LaFleur declined to discuss when he thinks Parsons will be ready to go.
“The guy is working his butt off to be out there,” LaFleur said. “We’ve made some ground in the last week. But when and when he’ll be available, time will tell. I’m certainly looking forward to that day.”
Parsons has not had any known setbacks in his recovery, but he was injured in Week 15 last season and the timeline for ACL recoveries is a long one under the best of circumstances. Whenever it comes, the hope in Green Bay will be that Parsons is back to his old form once the green light is on for his return.
Bears coach Ben Johnson said earlier in the day that Tyson Bagent will start Sunday’s game against the Packers.
It means Caleb Williams will miss a third week as he recovers from his Grade 2 hamstring strain.
During his media availability Monday afternoon, Johnson was asked about Williams’ rehab. Johnson said the quarterback will not practice this week but is still considered week to week.
“He’s doing a great job with his rehab,” Johnson said, via Nicholas Moreano of The Nicholas Moreano Show. “He’s not going to be there this week for us, but we think it’s still a week-to-week deal for us.”
The Bears beat the Eagles with Case Keenum in Week 3, and then started Bagent and Keenum in Week 4’s win over the Jets. Keenum played only the opening snap Sunday.
So, the Bears can afford to let Williams fully heal before returning him to the lineup.
